Greta Gerwig Personally Convinced Led Zeppelin to Let ‘Stairway to Heaven’ Soundtrack the ‘Narnia’ Trailer

Few songs guard their legacy like Led Zeppelin’s “Stairway to Heaven,” the 1971 rock epic from the band’s untitled fourth album. For decades, it has been the kind of track filmmakers dream about but rarely get to use.

The band reportedly turned down requests to feature it in ‘Wayne’s World’ and ‘Almost Famous’. That history is why the first trailer for ‘Narnia: The Magician’s Nephew’ landed with such a jolt this week.

According to Variety, Greta Gerwig didn’t go through the usual channels to land the song. She approached Jimmy Page and Robert Plant herself to request permission, and the band granted it after she showed them a cut of the film months ahead of its February release.

Gerwig explained her pick at the trailer presentation in New York, where she appeared alongside Stephen Colbert. She described the song as an epic, spiritual journey that deals with false idols and the wrong paths a person can go down. In her view, that made it a natural way to introduce audiences to Narnia.

The theme also lines up neatly with the books. Faith, temptation and the danger of following the wrong voice run through C.S. Lewis’s Narnia stories, and Gerwig, who attended Catholic school as a child, has spoken about how much the spiritual side of the series means to her.

Page was openly enthusiastic about the collaboration. He praised Gerwig as a powerhouse of cinema, pointing to ‘Little Women’, ‘Lady Bird’ and ‘Barbie’, and said he was thrilled she chose the song for her trailer.

Reports say Page and Plant had never allowed the song to be used this way before. After seeing the footage, they were deeply moved. Gerwig, for her part, said she was touched that the band recognized the heart of the film’s story.

A Universe Begins. See how Narnia was created in Narnia: The Magician’s Nephew, a film by Greta Gerwig – only in theaters February 12. https://t.co/jwxksCL0N7

— Netflix (@netflix) October 13, 2026

The needle drop isn’t a one-off stunt. Gerwig has said she wanted to make a rock opera, and she has cited David Bowie, Paul McCartney, David Gilmour, Pete Townshend and Led Zeppelin’s Page and Plant as inspirations. For her, Narnia is a world made out of music, which makes sense for a story in which a lion sings a universe into existence.

She also reunited with her ‘Barbie’ collaborators Mark Ronson and Andrew Wyatt, who are composing the film’s original score. In the trailer, Digory and Polly step into a colorful, magical world as the song plays, and the footage leans into swirling cosmic imagery and bursts of light.

Release Plans and Lingering Questions

The film was originally set to open on Nov. 26, 2026, with a two-week IMAX run. It has since moved to 2027, with IMAX previews starting on Feb. 10 and a wide global release on Feb. 12, before it lands on Netflix on April 2. The new plan gives the film a full theatrical window, which is rare for the streamer.

The cast includes Daniel Craig, Carey Mulligan and Denise Gough, with Meryl Streep voicing Aslan. That casting has sparked debate among some fans, and it remains unaddressed for now. Gerwig didn’t discuss the reasoning behind it at the presentation, and the trailer offers only a roar rather than a sense of Streep’s performance.

For many viewers, though, the Led Zeppelin moment may be the biggest talking point so far. It signals that Gerwig is aiming for something bold, personal and unmistakably her own.

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